


(Not Your) Cup of Tea

by TheFreakWithTheWings



Series: Gift fics [3]
Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 19:54:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5510954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFreakWithTheWings/pseuds/TheFreakWithTheWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: I'd really like to see Harry Dresden going under cover in an Orthodox monastery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Not Your) Cup of Tea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CabbageCultist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CabbageCultist/gifts).



> This is a gift for my friend's birthday, and, for once, I completed it on time.

The first thing Anastacia noticed about Harry Dresden was that he was tall and kind of scruffy.

“Can I help you?” he asked after opening the door to his office.

“Sorry,” she said, suddenly embarrassed that she might have been staring. “It’s just, um, I was, um, wondering- You’re Warden Dresden, right?”

Dresden stuck his head further out the door, looked right, looked left, then opened the door and stepped back to make room in a silent invitation. Anastacia stepped into the office and smiled nervously at the Warden.

“I am. And you?” he asked.

“I’m Stacy,” she said. She knew better than to give her real name to anyone magical.

“Alright, Stacy, what do you need?”

Being in close proximity only emphasized Dresden’s height- he had to be at least seven feet, two feet taller than her own 5’2”- and she was painfully aware that he was a powerful wizard. She had heard the stories.

“My sister, um, she’s on the Paranet, and she told me I should see you, well partly because she has to work, but, um, also because she, um, she said you worked as a PI when you weren’t doing, um, Warden things. And the phone book ad, it said that you can, um, find lost things,” Anastacia stammered, fumbling her explanation.

“You’re sister was right. What did you lose?” he asked, sitting down behind a desk.

“We didn’t lose it; Tori’s fiance, um, Gary, he stole it. Бабушка told us not to tell anyone about it until they had, um, married into the family, but Tori forgot,” Anastacia explained.

“What did you lose?” Dresden leaned forward in his chair.

“The, um, the samovar is magical, um, partly because it’s been in our family for so long and been imbued with the magic of those who use it and partly because, um, the person who first made it enchanted it. It’s, um, it’s tied to our bloodline.”

“Why not go to the police?”

“The police, they think that I stole it, but, um, I can’t use it. It would mess up my machines,” Anastacia said. “Also, um, it only works when someone with magic uses it, and I, um, I don’t have any,” she dug around in her purse and carefully placed the tissue wrapped item on the desk. “Tori said you could track it down using that.”

Dresden unwrapped the tissues to reveal a delicately curled piece of silver. “This is from the samovar?”

Anastacia nodded. “It broke off one of the handles.”

Dresden’s face creased into a smile. “Let me see what I can do.”

0o0o0

Jeremy Price liked to think of himself as a lone wolf, a man of action and danger. One of his side hobbies was collecting magical artifacts, and he liked to think of himself as quite the connoisseur. Currently, he was finishing a deal on some sort of Russian tea thing. Whatever, he didn’t need to know what it was; all Jeremy cared was that it was magic. The thief he had hired had promised that the tea thing had some sort of power over luck, maybe, and that was good enough for him.

Now he just needed to find the man.

The plan was to meet outside of some Christian monastery- Catholic, or maybe Orthodox- but the thief wasn’t there. Jeremy pulled out his phone to check the time, hoping that he was early. He wasn’t, but there was a new text message waiting for him. It was from an unknown number, but the sender had used same code as the thief.

Jeremy cursed and threw his phone on the ground after reading the message. The thief had joined the monastery, and if Jeremy wanted the magic tea thing, then he would have join up too, at least for a little while.

“Shit,” he muttered to himself. “I hope I don’t gotta shave my hair.”

Jeremy ran his hands through his hair a few times as he got back into his car and drove away.

0o0o0

“Two people in one day is almost unheard of,” the monk said, shuffling his papers.

Jeremy had a sudden craving for a cigar. The tall guy sitting next to him hunched over further.

“I really feel as if God is directing me down this path,” the other guy said earnestly. “I believe, no I know that the life of a monk is my destiny.”

“Yeah, me too.”

The monk stared at the two of them with piercing grey eyes, as if he could see into their very souls. Jeremy carefully stared at the monk’s nose. He had heard that wizards could actually look at your soul if you caught their eyes, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way that it was true for monks too.

Finally the old geezer smiled and welcomed them into the monastery. He shooed the two new novices out of his office, and as soon as the door closed Jeremy reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. 

“Hexus,” the other guy said, and his phone died in a stinging shower of sparks.

“Hey, what the,” Jeremy glanced at the monk’s office and lowered his voice. “Who the hell do you think you are, buddy?”

“Harry Dresden,” the tall guy said, straightening out of his slouch. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but then I’d be lying.”

Jeremy paled. He had heard stories of Dresden, of how he used to be wanted for murder by the head honchos of the wizards. He had also heard that Dresden was now working for them as one of the wizard cops. Apparently they chopped people's’ heads off instead of locking them away.

“I haven’t done nothing to any of the wizard people, I swear,” Jeremy quaked.

Dresden smiled, baring all his teeth. It was like looking at a really tall shark.

“I’m not here on behalf of the Council, Jeremy Price. I’m here because you hired someone to steal a samovar, and the family wants it back.”

“I can pay you,” Jeremy stammered. “I can pay you twice as much as they did. Three times.”

Dresden leaned in close, looming over Jeremy. “I don’t want your money. Leave.”

Jeremy had the monastery in his rearview mirror less than two minutes later.

0o0o0

Brother Alexei was working in the monastery’s garden when he saw two novices come running out of the main building, the tall one chasing the other one. He hadn’t had a chance to meet the new novices yet, so he didn’t know their names. It was clear, however, that they didn’t like each other very much.

Alexei wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying to each other, but the sound of raised voices was clear.

The two men ran towards the orchard, and Alexei stood up, about to interfere. They were getting dangerously close to the hiding place of his secret stash of vodka.

Then the shorter one started throwing fire at the taller one. 

God would want him to live more than He would want him to interfere, Alexei decided, and so he went back to gardening while keeping a close eye on the fight.

The tall one dodged the fire and sent a blast of wind at the other, knocking him down. He shouted something from the ground, and the tall one backed away from him, his hands held in the air.

The other man scrambled to his feet and ran towards the gate, shedding his cassock and hat as he ran.

By the time Alexei looked back to the tall man, he had disappeared.

Some people just weren’t cut out for the life of a monk.

0o0o0

Anastacia was putting the last touches on the Christmas cookies she was making for the family potluck when someone knocked on the door.

She carefully set down the icing tube and ran to open the door. Harry Dresden was standing in her doorway, getting covered in snow.

“Oh, come in, please,” she said, stepping back. Anastacia had done a little more research on Dresden over the past few days, and from what she had heard she would be perfectly safe letting him past the threshold. “No need for you to stand out in the cold.”

“Thanks.” Dresden pulled out a wrapped package from beneath his coat and handed it to her. “One magic samovar.”

Anastacia pulled back a corner of the wrapping paper to see the familiar silver. “Thank you so much. I have the rest of your fee, just wait one moment.”

She darted back into the kitchen and pulled the cheque out of one of the drawers. She also grabbed a tin and carefully placed a few uniced cookies in it. 

“Here you go, and, uh, I also thought you might want some cookies, so.” She shoved the tin and the cheque into his hands. “Happy Holidays.”


End file.
